No. 14 Rutgers wrestling earns 1st Big Ten win against No. 21 Indiana
The Rutgers wrestling team began Big Ten competition against Indiana on Friday night at Jersey Mike’s Arena on Livingston campus. The Scarlet Knights (8-1, 1-0) defeated the Hoosiers (3-1, 0-1) 30-11 and won 7 of their 10 bouts.
No. 14 Rutgers won the first bout of the contest, as No. 13 junior 125-pounder Dean Peterson pinned Blaine Frazier, rebounding from his upset defeat on Sunday.
No. 8 junior 133-pounder Dylan Shawver dominated in his bout against Cayden Rooks. Shawver had five takedowns and landed a technical fall, defeating Rooks 22-7 to put the Knights up 11-0.
In his first dual meet of the season, freshman 125-pounder Max Hermes struggled against No. 23 Dan Fongaro in the 141-pound matchup, suffering a 20-3 decision and losing by technical fall.
Coming off of a ranked win against Rider, junior 149-pounder Michael Cetta fell to No. 14 Graham Rooks in an 8-2 decision. Cetta kept the bout a 1-point contest after two periods of wrestling but Rooks was ultimately able to pull away with the win.
Rutgers would bounce back, as junior 157-pounder Al DeSantis earned a shutout major decision victory over Zack Rotkvich to make the score 15-8 heading into the intermission.
No. 21 Indiana came out of the locker room on the front foot, as No. 23 Tyler Lillard got a 4-1 decision win over junior 165-pounder Anthony White.
In the first ranked bout of the night, No. 27 senior 174-pounder Jackson Turley emerged victorious against No. 9 Donnell Washington and secured a technical fall. Turley began the bout with a near-fall and landed two takedowns to extend the Knights’ lead to 20-11.
After the match, Turley spoke on what led to the big win.
“I know exactly what's coming when it comes to him,” Turley said. “We just did a really good job preparing and I was ready.”
The Hoosiers would continue to struggle as Roman Rogotzke lost to No. 21 sophomore 184-pounder Brian Soldano in a 15-5 major decision.
No. 8 junior 197-pounder John Poznanski and No. 7 graduate student 285-pounder Yaraslau Slavikouski sealed the dual win for Rutgers with victories over Gabe Sollars and Nick Willham, respectively.
Overall, the Knights outscored Indiana 90-48 and landed 18 takedowns.
Rutgers will look to continue its strong start to conference play against Purdue. The match will be in West Lafayette, Indiana, and will begin at 1 p.m. on Sunday.
“Great, great team effort. Up and down the lineup, some huge wins,” said head coach Scott Goodale.
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